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Aviation History
1910
1910 - 0924.PDF
JQGHT] THE WAR OFFICE ONE of theje days the War Office will do something that meets with the approval of everyone—and then the end will come. For a long time the military authorities have had it rubbed into them that they are lagging hopelessly behind the nations in their development of aeronautical science in its application to the purposes of war. Not only were they doing nothing themselves, but they gave no assistance to private experimenters—indeed, quite the reverse, for the inventor who went to them with an experimental flying machine was regarded as having a bee in his bonnet. Well, now that the War Office has shown a disposition to wake up, and has really done something at last, the critics are up in arms against the responsible officials, and are busy laying down what ought to have been done and how it should have been accomplished. The War Office bought the Clement- Bayard. True, they justified their action by haggling somewhat over the price, and bought it for less than they were asked to pay, but even this does not satisfy, for they ought never to have touched it until it had passed all the tests laid down when the dirigible had yet to prove itself a reasonably practical proposition. For ourselves, we hold that the War Office was perfectly right in acquiring the Clement vessel, for even supposing that she is not a perfect craft, she is one of the best of the non-rigid type extant, and one of the very few in existence. Even were she not potentially serviceable in any other direction, she forms a valuable link in development for the British aerial staff, and enables them to continue where others have left off, instead of having to do all the spade work for themselves. We are not concerned with any defects there may have been, other than in design. Possibly, some details were not altogether as they might have been, but that does not alter the main contention we have already advanced. The arguments we have heard mooted against the action of the military authorities regarding the purchase of this vessel are merely worthy of the bargain-counter, and may therefore be dismissed as too flimsy to require serious answer. Now it is the turn of the aeroplane. The War Office having purchased two machines, a Farman and a Paulhan, are being taken to task, as Mr. Holt Thomas points out in our correspondence columns, for not having bought British machines. It seems to have, been urged that there are British manufacturers who are making machines of these types — dead copies, in fact — and that from patriotic motives alone these copies should have been bought instead. But here again we.are in agreement with the responsible authorities. We yield to no one in the quality of our patriotism, and it is precisely for this reason that we endorse the policy of the authorities. In order to get a sound footing, our army needs to be equipped with the approved best types of machines. Far be it from us to say that no British copy is equal to a French original, if it be really true that any firm in this country is making such a thing as a slavish copy without licence from those who have risked their lives and expended their brains upon developing their design up to a practical point. We prefer to think that our British manufacturers who are building aeroplanes of similar or approaching type to the Farman, let us say, are doing so with precisely the same objects in view that the War Office has in mind in purchasing the best types to be had for money—to get a starting point for their own im provements. Nothing but the best is good enough for this NOVEMBER 12, 191a AND AEROPLANES. purpose; and the military authorities have done the right thing as the development of the heavier-than air machine stands to-day. To-morrow the case may be different and we may have an improved—and, what is better, a proved —British machine which will lead the world. Until then the world must be searched for all that is best at the moment, so that it, too, may be acquired irrespective of its origin or of whose feelings are injured in the transaction. One point, and one point only, we think the authorities might insist upon as soon as questions of time and delay render reasonable such a course, and that is that the machines they buy should be built in this country by those who own the designs. There is no real hardship —and no suggestion of pilfering—in making such a stipulation, while no vestige of' excuse would remain for those who plead patriotic sensitiveness to secure a hearing for their chronic growls. In this connection, the conditions just laid down by the French Minister of War to govern the conduct of a Concours d'Aeroplanes Militaires, to be held a year hence, are most interesting and illuminating. The trials, which are to be held for the purpose of demonstrating the best types of aeroplane for military purposes, are to be open to the world, both as to the machines themselves and the men who navigate them. One essential condition is laid down, however, which is on the lines of the one just suggested above. The machine may be anything in design; its inventor may come from Patagonia for all the French authorities care, but he must build his aeroplane in France. He is not asked to do it for nothing, either; for, although it would be obviously impossible for the French Army to guarantee to pay the expenses of any and every crank who finds him self " up against" this condition, the prizes offered by the Government are sufficiently good to tempt the practical builder to risk what it will cost him to construct his machine in France. The conditions, which are fully outlined on another page, stipulate that machines must be capable of carrying a useful weight of 300 kilogs. and be fitted with three seats. They must first pass through certain eliminating tests in October, after which those which have come through to the satisfaction of the authorities will take part in the final tests which'are to take place on the 1st November and following days. There are to be three awards in all. The first prize- winning machine will be purchased by the French Government for ^4,000; and its makers will receive an immediate order for ten similar aeroplanes at a price of ,£1,600 each, with an additional premium of £20 per machine for each kilom. per hour in excess of 60 attained by the winner in the speed-tests, up to a maximum of 80 kiloms. per hour. A simple calculation will show that the winning machine can quite possibly bring its makers in a total purchase figure of ,£24,000. As second award the maker of the machine gets an order for six machines at £T>6oo each, with a similar speed bonus, so that the maximum amount he stands to get is ,£12,000; while for the winner of third place there is an order to be given for four machines at the same price, and under similar conditions, making the highest possible amount to be obtained by him £8,000. Under these ideal conditions the French Army will secure twenty of the best machines in the world ; built in France. We commend the principle of these trials to our own War Office as being quite the best method of procedure that has yet been proposed.
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